While scuba diving in Tanzania, Sam and Remi Fargo come upon a relic belonging to a long-lost Confederate ship. An anomaly about the relic sets them off chasing a mystery-but unknown to them, a much more powerful force is engaged in the same chase. Mexico's ruling party, the ultranationalist Mexica Tenochca, is intent on finding that artifact as well, because it contains a secret that could destroy the party utterly.

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Publisher's Summary

Sam and Remi Fargo, heroes of Spartan Gold, return in this extraordinary new adventure from the number-one New York Times- bestselling author. With Spartan Gold, a daring thriller that Publishers Weekly proclaimed "solidly in the Cussler tradition, [and] sure to please new fans and old," Clive Cussler introduced husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo. In their electrifying new adventure, the Fargos make a startling discovery that others would kill to keep hidden....

While scuba diving in Tanzania, Sam and Remi Fargo come upon a relic belonging to a long-lost Confederate ship. An anomaly about the relic sets them off chasing a mystery-but unknown to them, a much more powerful force is engaged in the same chase. Mexico's ruling party, the ultranationalist Mexica Tenochca, is intent on finding that artifact as well, because it contains a secret that could destroy the party utterly.

Through Tanzania and Zanzibar, into the rainforests of Madagascar, and across the Indian Ocean to Indonesia and the legendary site of the 1883 Krakatoa explosion, the Fargos and their ruthless opponents pursue the hunt-but only one can win. And the penalty for failure is death.

Filled with the dazzling suspense and breathtaking action that are Cussler's trademarks, Lost Empire is a stunning new novel from the grand master of adventure.

Having loved Cussler's book, Spartan Gold, which first introduced us to treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo, I was excited to embark on this second listen with this dynamic duo. In this tale, Sam and Remi find a relic left from an eccentric, yet brilliant, sea captain. This embroils them in a web of deceit. The current President of Mexico is erroneously campaigning that Mexico's roots began with the Aztec Empire. Sam and Remi must be silenced lest they divulge his lies, and our heros are now on their own mission to find the truth behind the story of this captain's ship, and it's watery grave using cryptography.

In Spartan Gold it was non-stop entertainment, traveling with them through their swashbuckling exploits in an Indiana Jones-type, thrill-a-minute adventure. Alas, I was disappointed with Cussler's second undertaking. This "book" gave me "whiplash." One minute the story was fun and action-packed. The next minute the lengthy, boring, overly-detailed narrative was putting me to sleep. Think Dan Brown on steroids. Cussler created a VERY complex plot in this book, which could have been great, but there were passages after passages of explanations of historical events, background information, science, anthropology, cryptography, and, of course, the details of the plot itself. WAY too much going on. Scott Brick (who did an admirable job with this difficult narration) was required to drone on and on and on and on... you get the idea.

Then the storyline would switch gears and Sam and Remi would get back to being treasure hunters, the role which makes them so endearing, and it would draw me back in. This back and forth pace of the book was frustrating. The slow parts made it very difficult for me to stay engrossed all the way through the listen.

On the positive side, if you would enjoy in-depth history of the Aztec Empire, keeping track of intricate plot details, and can handle umpteen chapters of tedious cryptography, you might really enjoy this book.

This isn't Cussler's best work. The meandering plot at times gets lost in the historical details, interesting as they are. Sam and Remi are just too "precious" for my taste. Scott Brick has cleaned up a lot of his narrating flaws and does a good job.

This is a difficult book for me to review. I enjoyed this book more than the first in the Fargo series, but it's far from perfect.

What I really like about the story are the characters. Sam and Remi are great characters and can really carry a story. Their friends are also really well written from Selma and her staff, to their friends in high places.The setting is also fantastic. From the jungles of Africa to their high tech home in California and everywhere in between. They are all awesome settings.Treasure hunting was also a lot of fun. The searching for all the different things from diving to digging to using technology to research the artifacts.

What really drags the book down for me are the antagonists. They feel like cheesy comic book villains. The artifact will destroy everything I have worked so hard to protect and take down civilization as we know it! It gets a bit silly and goes a bit against what Cussler does well with his Dirk Pitt series. Grounded villains. Not all the villains are this way, but the main antagonist is and his number 2 follows orders and never questions them and that takes some of the fun out of what is really a pretty good story.

I like treasure hunting books. They're a lot of fun for me to read, but I like them to have a complete story with good characters good and evil, a good plot, unique settings and most of all it needs to be fun. This book gets most of it right, but the villains really hurt the story for me,so it gets a 3 in terms of story. Scott Brick orates the story using his great voice and brings the Fargo's to life and has enough different accents for all the characters.

I AM THRILLED WITH THIS STORY, I APPLAUD THE HISTORY RUN, THE CHARACTERS. VALOR AND TRUE TO THEIR CALL, THEY BRING US FROM ONE STRING OF KNOWLEDGE TO ANOTHER, AN EXCELLENT ADVENTURE. IT IS SO WORTH THE CREDIT.

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